The Doctor Returns
by Zaydee Kaine
Summary: A mysterious blue box is found in the woods; it's old, and looks as though it has been sitting there for atleast fifty years. But if the TARDIS has been there for fifty years, where is the Doctor? Part 1 and 2.
1. Part 1

The first day of spring warmth came just as expected: absolutely ordinary. In my little town, the sun had burnt off enough of the cold from winter to go about in jeans and a sweater sometime in mid-March. I wanted to go out and walk Laney, but she just so happened to be at the groomers, so I decided to go for a walk on my own. I wasn't worried, I knew the forest well enough and just as much as I should since I had grown up in this town and played amongst the trees as a kid.

So I grabbed by messenger bag equipped with a book, cell phone and water bottle, and made my way down Hatchett Lane and turned left at Spool Road, following the fairly straight gravel road towards the edge of town. Our town was small, still is, with a general store, gas station, and a few small shops run by the locals, all of whom were friends of my parents.

The wind was still slightly chilly, carrying the last trances of winter with it, so I put my hair up in a pony tail as I turned off the cement road and headed down a familiar path towards the woods. But I always took this path, I thought to myself, noticing the tumbleweed was still stuck against an old tree stump. Same rocks piled together on the left side of the path cut through grass from so many pairs of feet. That was when I decided to cut through the forest somewhere else.

So I skirted the edge of the forest, taking my chances at getting my black and white converse dirty since they hadn't been properly worn in yet. I found a way in to the forest through the brush in between two large bushes, and found myself in the familiar woods with the oak trees that had seemed to be there for centuries; these were the ones that survived the settlers who had hacked down some of them to make room for the town I now called home.

I veered slightly to the right and kept walking, the trees having quite some space between them so while there was a nice green canopy, it didn't grow dark even as I kept walking. I walked for a half hour or so before I saw a large rock that I had never seen before. It was massive, some leftover stone from millennia before that had been inserted there by the massive forces of lava I'm sure. I walked around it, peering up and curiously wondering how many birds had landed on top of this boulder.

As I walked around it my brown eyes came upon a small clearing and then I saw it. Against one particular tree. I froze, fear rising in me which always made my eyes water. I blinked furiously, staring at this beautiful thing that could not possibly be. I felt a sudden sense of adrenaline, my body saying run! _That's what he says._

"It can't be," I recall myself saying aloud in a mystified whisper as I stepped closer.

In that moment I saw that one thing. The one thing we all wish to see. And the one thing we all dread to see. It was the blue box.

That beautiful Pantone 2955C blue. The large blue box with the 8 panels on each side and the door with a note that says "pull to open" and the light on top that makes the...

I stopped myself, having realized I was but two feet from the box now. It was... decrepit. How long had it been there? Atleast fifty years or so, leaning on a tree as if it had gotten tired of standing there, waiting.

"Waiting?" I asked aloud; why had I thought it was waiting? Where had that thought come from? It was obvious though, once I said the word aloud, who it was waiting for. It was waiting for the Doctor. But from the looks of her, with vines crawling up her sides and her entirety covered in dirt from stray dust clinging to other dust molecules and rain splashing mud up her sides. She had been waiting for the Doctor for a long time, and he hadn't come back.

_But he's here!_ I told myself. It's waiting for him, I knew it was, which meant he was somewhere in this part of the state. Or atleast I hoped he was, but if it had been fifty years, as I suspected it was, that meant the Doctor was probably dead by now. Someone had killed him in the middle of his regerenation cycle perhaps, or maybe it was a fob watch, like the one the Master had used.

What was I talking about, those were all just stories! Just fairy tales of a once great man; come to think of it, I never heard new stories of him, only old stories of what he had been and what he had done. I looked around; nobody. No tracks of footprints or that anybody had been by this spot for so long.

But I've grown up in this town and had travelled these woods for miles and miles with my friends when I was a child; how come I'd never seen the box? I knew there had to be a reason, there had to be a reason why I suddenly found the blue box, and why I somehow knew that it was waiting; this wasn't just a happenstance.

So I walked up to the blue box, the beloved time machine and I called out her name, "TARDIS." There was no response, not a single noise uttered from the box that I had only ever heard about or seen pictures of. I put my hand on the right door panel, seeing a small trail of ants crawling around the box to get some unknown food source on the other side. There were cobwebs above the foggy windows in the corners and the signage on the front was yellowed, atleast what remained of it. With a deep breath, adrenaline pumping to my brain, and a large amount of courage, I wrapped thin fingers around that now-rusted doorhandle and pushed.

Nothing happened. It was locked, that was for sure. I shook the door furiously but fearing the rusted handle might fall off, I stopped. "Let me in!" I shouted and hit my flat palm against one of the wood panels, yet still there was nothing. I sighed and took a step back and whispered, "What happened to you?" I must have stayed for an hour or two, before I had resolved to find out what happened to the Doctor. He had to be nearby, and the nearest town was mine. The next closest was nearly sixty miles away, so he would no doubtedly have gone to my town if he was still alive.

As I walked out of those woods I tried to remember my path; I timed my walk back so I would remember landmarks that would guide me back. I broke out in to the mid-afternoon sun, clouds having been burned away and made my way back home while thinking about who the oldest people in town were.

If the Doctor had a Chameleon Arch, he would have a whole history written in to the town, he wouldn't be a mysterious stranger that showed up fifty years ago. But I deduced that when he arrived he would most likely look as though he were in his thirties judging by photos I'd seen of his many faces. So adding the roughly fifty years that the TARDIS had been sitting in the forest, who was around eighty years old in town who had either been born here, or who had not arrived in the past fifty years and was male. The thought of finding him made my heart race.

There was George Norrington who was always a bit crabby and walked with a cane, or Gale Ackerson. No, Gale was much too young, probably still in his sixties. There was Avery Frost, or Jacob Carmichael. I would have to visit them, and there was Ed Barstow or even Patrick Hambley. I decided to get home and make a list of all the men in town who would fit the criteria. In the end, I had 15 people on my list, and decided to start off with the ones who I thought were the oldest.

Now granted, I had no idea the real ages of these men, but I had some inkling to it. So I went to visit old Tom Rowe who would most likely be just finishing an afternoon tea at Bread & Cie.

"Afternoon Tom," I said as I walked up the three steps of the front of the cafe.

"Hey there Tamara," he said casually, not looking up from his Prevention Magazine.

"Hey Tom,"

"Mmhmm?" he said without looking up, far too worried that he might have Cancer without knowing it because everybody carries cellphones.

"Do you happen to have an old fob watch?"

"A what?" He looked up, I'm sure recalling how he had seen his father or perhaps his grandfather carrying one.

"A fob watch, I'm looking for one to use for a photo shoot." It was the quickest lie I could come up with, and people in town knew I was an amateur photographer, or atleast that's how I liked to think of myself back then.

"A fob watch? No, I don't have one of those." He sat back in his chair.

"Oh. You don't have one like in your house or anywhere?"

"No, and even if I did, who says I'd let you borrow it eh?"

I creased my eyebrow and nodded, finding his standoffish demeanor to be unsettling. I said good bye to him and went on to the local bank to talk to Avery Frost since he did part-time security guard work there.

All in all, my first day was unsuccessful. Nobody seemed to have a fob watch in town, and the next day was Monday and I had to be in school. While I was in school I started spreading around that I was looking for a fob watch, casually talking about a made-up photo shoot I wanted to do with my friends Padma and Jinx. They readily agreed and determined that a fob watch was not the most important thing for the photo shoot, no matter how enthusiastically I talked about it.

By Friday, I was nearly losing hope. I found myself sitting at lunch, having set down my tray on the usual table before all my friends go out of class. I had a free period before lunch so I usually got to our table early to save our spaces.

One of the very corner windows, at the very top was left opened just a bit; I figured perhaps one of the janitors had forgotten to close it or something. I looked down at my green apple, figuring I would have to actually do a Victorian themed photo shoot with my friends without having found that blasted Chameleon Arch.

I held the shiny apple in my hand and put it up to my mouth, just about to take a bite when something hit my hand. Still holding the apple I pulled it away from my mouth and looked down. A small paper airplane had struck my hand and I looked around to see who had thrown it. But the few other people in the cafeteria who were there at the same time as me didn't look like they had thrown it. There was no snickering from a particular group or nobody looked as though they were purposely averting my eyes; everything was normal. I scowled and bent down to get the paper airplane that had fallen to the white linoleum tiles.

I put my apple down and opened the paper, and in all capital letters I read a name, "Jacob Carmichael."

My eyes widened. This was it. I had to go see him. But just then the bell rang signaling everyone for lunch; this would have to wait. But it was too important to wait! I told myself. I stood up rapidly, heart pounding and looked around but I knew I couldn't do it right at that moment. At that moment, I had to be a normal teenager, eating a normal lunch, in a normal school with normal friends and it was driving me mad! I just wanted to find that stupid watch, I just wanted to find the stupid doctor and I just wanted to-

The school day droned on for three more periods. Finally the last bell rang and I bolted from school at 2:10, foregoing the bus ride home to run to the local grocery store. Jacob Carmichael had been the one to take over the grocery store when the previous Barstow family had had to put it up for foreclosure. While Carmichael didn't grow up in town, he grew up two towns over and his mother had moved him here after she and his father had divorced. So he was as much a local boy as I was a local girl. I started thinking about all the things I knew about Jacob. All the things about his family, how he was an only child, how his mother had passed away quite some time before.

My converse hit the pavement one foot at a time as I raced to the center of town, foregoing cross walks and ignoring lights as long as no cars were coming. I took one giant leap past the 3 steps to the grocery store and almost ran in to the electric doors as they almost didn't open fast enough. I went over to the check out counter huffing and puffing, and asked Saad, "Where's Mr. Carmichael?"

"Uh, in the back I think. You ok?"

"Yes" was all I said as I ran to the back corner of the grocery store and, stopping myself from pounding on the door, knocked three times without trying to seem to excited.

"Come in," came the voice of Jacob as he was double checking the check-list of groceries that he was about to order for the 206th birthday of the town in just two weeks time.

I walked in, huffing and puffing still though catching my breath was made difficult by how hard my heart was pounding.

"Ah, hello there Tamara, what can I do ya for?"

He was always nice, though he'd had no children from what I knew about him however there were rumors that he had once fancied the town mayor, though she had married somebody else quite late in her life.

"Mr. Carmichael, do you have a fob watch?"

"A what?"

"A fob watch, one of those old,"

"Catch your breath" he said as I was still trying to gulp down air. I made a mental note to start running again since I was out of shape it appeared.

"those old pocket watches, that were on the chain that guys used to put in their pockets."

"No, I don't think so," he replied slowly.

"Think Mr. Carmichael, did maybe your dad give you one or something?" I figured, if the Doctor had made a grand story about himself, he would surely have put this in to the whole scheme of things.

"Hmm now, let me think." He put down his pencil and leaned back in his chair, arms crossed over his thin frame. He'd always been like that; thin, clean shaven though his once full head of hair was now thinned and grey but age had not dampered his kind and humorous nature.

It was quite a few seconds of him staring off in to space before he said, "You know, I might just have one."

"You do?!" I tried to contain my excitement and he looked at me with questioning eyes at why I was so excited for the prospect of holding an old pocket watch.

"Yes, or atleast I think so. In an old chest in my attic, I'm fairly certain there's one in there."

"Well let's go!" I paused, calming myself. I had to play it cool, I had to act like my life didn't depend on that little watch. "I mean, sorry, I just, I have this uh, photoshoot at," I looked at my watch. It was quarter to three, "four o'clock, so I need that watch to make the costumes look really authentic.

Jacob nodded his head and shrugged, "Well then, guess we better get going. I'm always one to support young people and the arts." He stood up out of his chair and grabbed his jacket, putting it on with a slower pace than I would have liked but I gave him time. We left the grocery store after he told Saad he would be back in an hour, and we walked the three blocks to his small, two bedroom house.

I had never really talked to Jacob before but I found his casual demeanor put me at ease and conversation with him was quite effortless. We got to his house and went in without having to unlock the door; he said he never locked the door since this town was so trustworthy.

"Follow me, gotta get the ladder." We went out to his shed and I helped him carry the ladder up to the second floor. He set it up and I held on to it just to make sure it didn't tip over. The old man climbed up to the ceiling and pushed up on the square wood that revealed the attic. Jacob always made sure to keep a flashlight up there and he grabbed for it in it's usual place.

"I'll only be a minute." He climbed easily up to the attic and I waited impatiently as I heard him walking over to a corner of the house. I heard noises that I could only assume was him rummaging through an old worn chest, probably wrought with iron around it and an old fashioned lock. Then I heard him walking back over towards the hole in the roof, well, technically the floor for him.

"Did you find it?"

"You're a very lucky young girl because it just so happens that I've found you a pocketwatch." He said it triumpantly and I remember beaming, staring at his hand that clutched the watch as he made his way down the ladder, having replaced the wooden panel on his way down.

"Well, here ya go," he gave me the watch once he was on stable ground and I held it in my hand. It was plain and metal, probably fake silver. It wasn't shiny but there were no design on it; just a plain old watch it looked like.

"Open it," I said as I looked up at him.

"What?" he seemed confused at the concept. Bingo.

"I want you to open it," I went to hand it back to him but he didn't take it.

"Me? Why? It's yours for the photoshoot."

"But I, uh, I don't know how to open it."

"You just turn the little nob on the top," he indicated with his finger, hands wrinkled from time.

"I don't know which way to turn it, here," I nearly put it in his palm, forcing him to hold it as he stared down at the silvery sphere.

He held the sphere in his hand, and old remnant of a world gone past him. He turned it over twice in his hand.

"Well you just turn it to the left," he said, not doing it.

"So you do it, just..." I paused, feeling the disruption in the air, "Just open it."

"But it's broken" was his excuse.

"How do you know?"

"I, well, I just... It's been broken a long time. I mean..." I could see it in his eyes. He thought it was broken because of the battery that hadn't been changed in so long. It must be, after all. Any normal fob watch would be.

"why don't you open it?

"I just... I don't know."

"Oh go on then." I said encouragingly. He hesitated before slowly turning the dial on the top of the watch to the left, counter clockwise.

**[Alternative ending available in Part 3]**

It happened in a split second when I was thrown back by an incredible force that knocked the wind out of me. I remember landing at the end of the hall and I looked up to see the golden glowing of Jacobs arms and head, light bursting forth from the old mans body as he regenerated. It was so bright I nearly had to cover my eyes.

The power of the regeneration lifted him from the floor before he fell to his knees, the glow dying away just as quickly as it had wracked his body and it left the Doctor in its wake. He put a hand up to his face, and I can only assume that he was looking for two eyes, a nose and a mouth.

"Hmm, yes, quite sharp," were his first words as he touched his cheekbones, pressing the tips of two slender fingers to his cheeks. "And hair," he ran fingers through his hair before he tapped his teeth together ecclectically. "New teeth, ooh I like these," he tapped his teeth together again as he stood and looked down at his outfit. He then looked ove rhis hands, the wrinkles gone, skin pulled taught like that of a thirty-something year old. "That's much better, I-"

He stopped his talking wen he looked over and saw I was staring at him, still laying on the floor but having propped myself up on one arm as I stared at him in disbelief that I had really done it. I had actually found and brought back the doctor.

"Hello there, what are you doing on the ground?" He asked as he walked over and reached out a hand for me. I took it and he helped me quickly to my feet.

"I was just-"

"Where is she?" he had already moved on to different thoughts, patting his sweater where his inside jacket pocket would be if he were wearing a blazer. He patted down his pants pockets and his eyes widened in shock, "No screwdriver, where's it got off to?" He spun in a circle looking around at the floor and walls as if the sonic screwdriver would be around somewhere.

"You probably l-"

"Gotta find it!" He shouted triumphantly as he raced past me and down the stairs, and out the front door with as much energy as ever. I ran after him, remembering how he liked to run and I vowed to improve my cardio as soon as I could. My hands were shaking as I ran after him and he stopped as soon as he'd left the property line and stood on the cement. "No, I know. I know, I've got to find the TARDIS and she'll probably have my screwdriver if my mind serves me right," he reached up a hand and scratched his head, thinking. Then he turned to me, patting down his hair before ruffling it up, "Ginger?!"

I stood in bewilderment, seeing the wild eyes processing everything at rates much faster than I could ever fathom. "Um, no... not ginger."

"Darn it!" He exclaimed loudly before he said quieter, "I really thought I'd be ginger this time." He began walking briskly down the street the opposite direction that he'd left his time machine and I padded after him,

"Where are you going?" I asked,

"To find my TARDIS, it's a big blue box have you seen it?" He had a genuine smile and twinkling eyes, short brown hair that was ruffled from his own hands and he was roughly my heighth, though I think slightly taller. He had high cheekbones and an average nose; overall good looking though he wouldn't stand out in a crowd.

"Yes, its uh, its the other direction."

"Other direction!" he exclaimed, licking his finger and putting up in the air as he turned around and stood in place. "Yes, yes, tastes about right. Excellent!" and he began walking that quick pace again.

We walked towards the woods and I told him my name. He proudly introduced himself as the Doctor and thanked me briefly for forcing him to open the watch. I pointed the direction I had come from before, from when I had found that beautiful piece of Time Lord technology rusting all alone in the forest next to my sleepy town. We quickly made it to the underbrush and the Doctor seemed quiet and determined and kept mumbling under his breath.

"It's this way, to the right-" I said as we got closer,

"Nope, nope, definitely forward."

"What? No, I'm fairly certain its to the right, I remember that sawed off tree stump," I said as I pointed at the stump that had been cut too deeply in to.

"That's the TARDIS perception field, confusing anyone who she doesn't want to stumble upon her." He kept walking,

"Oh," I was a bit put off. After all, didn't I deserve to stumble upon her again? I mean, I had found the Doctor after all, but I followed his lead anyways.

Nearly ten minutes later that giant boulder came in to view and my eyes widened; _but we were just walking straight this whole time_, I recall telling myself. But as we rounded the large boulder, there she was and the Doctor did a half jump in excitement as he ran to the rotting TARDIS with the vines twisting their way up the sides and dirt still dried on to the peeling paint.

"Beautiful old girl, still here eh?" He smiled up at her with a genuine grin as though he looked upon a lost lover, touching the blue of her front door just above the silver handle. She seemed to come to light just then, the bulb on top lighting and light began to pour out of the top windows as she began making noises, loud noises of engines moving as the TARDIS began to repair itself.

"Ah, yes, excellent." He said as he put his hand on the handle and pushed, the door opening to the mess that had become his favorite machine. He stepped in, taking only a second to look at the worn down beauty, most of the bulbs blinking broken and the center consol looking rusted. He told me later that many of the nobs had broken and fallen to the floor or cracked from his crash landing, but that beautiful beige lever that would start her engines remained in tact. After he took a moment to look over the remnants of the TARDIS, he stepped out of the blue box and walked right at me, pointing his finger at me threateningly,  
"How did you find my TARDIS?! Who sent you was it the Raknavore's huh? Come back after fifty years looking for me?" He pointed his finger right in my face and I backed up several feet,

"No I just stumbled upon it. Is that who was chasing you, the Raknavore's?"

"Yes the Raknavore's were chasing me who else would it be? Well I mean it could be the Family of Blood, the Adipose all grown, oh but they were so cute when they were babies," he rambled, "But that's, that's not the point" he looked back at me as his gaze had been wandering off, following his thoughts, "The question I really want to know is, how did you find my TARDIS?" He asked almost sinisterly. I knew he had no sonic screwdriver, but knew that in time the TARDIS would heal itself and make one for himself; and who knew. Perhaps he would turn out to be an evil Doctor after his fifty-some-odd-years trapped as a human.

"I told you, I stumbled upon it. But last time I turned right instead of going forward."

"Right, right, that's right, you did say something about that before didn't you."

I nodded.

"Well you wait, wait right here! I will be back!" he declared, "After this ol' girl has gotten herself fixed up and I have got a new screwdriver," he turned away and made it one step in to the TARDIS before I heard him collapse with a howl of pain.

"Doctor?" I questioned as I took a step towards the blue box but then the door slammed shut and it began to make that noise. That sonorous noise that sounds like an engine churning but with somebody having left the brakes on.

"Doctor!" I shouted but it was no good over the noise of the transporting TARDIS. The wind was blowing my hair back, leaves stirring all around as she slowly disappeared before my eyes, leaving nothing but a damp and slightly dug pad of earth where she had stood and a slight indentation on the tree that the phone booth had been leaning on. I stood there, and there I waited. I waited until dark, and he didn't come back. I remember leaving a trail of rocks I was able to scrounge up from the forest floor, and I went back every single day when I had free time. I eventually started bringing a chair and a book, and I kept waiting. If there was one place he was going to come back, it would be that spot. Now my last summer in town is over, and I'm going to college in five days. I write this because I think I'll give it to somebody some day; maybe the government or something so that they can do something with it. I suppose the Doctor is back, but not for me. I missed my chance, and regret it every day for not barging in to the TARDIS like I ought to have done. Before it disappeared.


	2. Part 2

There is an age-old question asking if a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound. The same goes for if a TARDIS appears in the woods, does it make a sound? The answer to this question is simple: yes.

The glorious engines roared as the Doctor brought her in with the parking break on, wind of the oncoming time traveling machine blowing leaves every direction and rustling the trees as the blue began to materialize in a different part of the clearing where she had stood testament over time for so many years. With one loud, resounding boom she came to a stop and revealed a fresh blue coat of paint and fully functioning capabilities. The door opened with a creak and the doctor stepped out, "Sorry 'bout that, had to make sure the TARDIS was still in propper working condition, but I think," he said after he had scanned around and looked up at his beautiful time machine, admiring all her glory, "she could use a bit of a rest to finish the redecorating eh?" He closed the door and looked around, checked his watch, "Tamara?" He walked in to the center of the clearing and looked around, "Tamaraaa?" he called out. "Hmm," he checked his watch rapidly, "Only been gone a couple of hours." He was only fakely peeved at her having left the spot without leaving a note. So he shrugged and walked off, not taking note of the patch of earth where the TARDIS had once spent many-a-year waiting.

He followed the quickest path out of the forest, hands in the pockets of his brown trousers; button up shirt tucked in to his waistband. He walked up a different path than he had taken to get to the TARDIS, taking in deep breaths of earth air and smiling around at all the creatures still present. He swore he hadn't been gone that long. He found himself along the main road that led in to town and marvelled at the ingenious of humans who had made sure to build homes from wood and stone that would last centuries, and the humans after them who maintained the buildings that now formed the main street of the quiet town.

Two women stood chatting on the steps of the local bookstore and he walked over, "Excuse me,"

They both looked up from their gossip. They were both old with white hair and buttoned sweaters even though the town was warming up with spring sunshine. "Can I help you?" Asked Gretchen,

"Yes, um, I'm looking for Tamara? About my heighth, brown hair, normal looking?"

"Oh Tamara McGovern? She's gone to the University."

"Is that right?" He smiled broadly; glad she had made something of her life. The girl who had saved him had moved on and gone to university where she was no doubt having a blast.

"No, she's back in town, remember?" pointed out Lucy.

"She is?" asked Gretchen.

"Yes, she's on spring break now."

"Oh that's right, that's right."

"She lives down Cooke's Lane, just half a mile that way" pointed Lucy.

"She's probably in the wood," muttered Gretchen.

"Pardon?" asked the Doctor.

"In the woods, it's where she spends her afternoons you know. That girl used to spend hours in the woods when she was in high school, always bringing books and wouldn't come home till sunset."

"Never could find her. You could look for her for hours and wouldn't find her till she came outa there." Lucy mused. The Doctor grinned, his eyes lighting up.

"Excellent, better be off then."

"If we see her, who should we say came looking for her?"

"Oh, um, tell her - " he paused as he spoke to Gretchen, walking backwards, "You know what, don't tell her anything if you see her." He then turned and began his walk back to the woods where his TARDIS awaited, and he hoped to find Tamara on the way.

The day was perfect to go spend waiting for the Doctor and reading; the sun was warm, the breeze was still chilled from winter just like that day when she had found him 4 years prior. She wore plain jeans and old maroon and white converse, a sweater thrown over her white tank top. Over one shoulder she had her messenger bag filled with the usual: a book, pb & j sandwich, a bottle of iced tea and a bottle of water, and some rice crackers to munch on. Over her other shoulder was a folded up camping chair tucked neatly in its red holder; it was brand new, since her other one had gotten so worn out, it broke when she had tried sitting in it two days ago. Her feet crunched over leaves as she followed the path of stones that she had left herself intermittently. It was always an adventure now-a-days, getting to the spot. The path never seemed quite the same, and sometimes she distinctly remembered veering left the previous days though the stone had her veering slightly to the right this time. After it rained some of the stones would get covered by mud or washed away by rain, but she always found new stones to replace the old so she would always find her way back. It was her own little secret, and she had never showed nor told anybody else about it.

The place where the TARDIS had once sat was now completely covered. After many winters of rain that had mulled up the dirt and many windy fall's that strew leaves all over the patch, it was now undescernable from the forest floor around it. But the tree remained, and so did the boulder, and Tamara saw this as she approached the clearing, the small stones once again leading her correctly to that spot.

She rounded the boulder, looking down at a small gopher hold that had appeared near the base of it. Gopher holes always made her laugh because she found them often by her feet falling in to them. She went to slide the strap of the chair off her shoudler as she looked up, and was unable to catch the chair as it fell flat to the ground with a dull thud. Her eyes widened and Tamara stared at the beautiful, looming TARDIS for only a second before she cried out, "DOCTOR!" She rushed to the door and began pounding on it with one fist, her other hand on the silver handle as she rattled the door as best she could. She grabbed the handle with two hands, furiously tugging and pushing at it, "Doctor!" She cried out again, elongating each of the o syllables. She pounded on the door with both her fists for only a second and then stopped, her heart racing. Her chest heaved as adrenaline raced through her veins and made her heart pound as she stared wide-eyed at the TARDIS that had finally appeared in her little forest clearing. She took a step back and marveled at its beauty, the paint freshly blue and it had no markings of the plants or mud that had once plastered the time machine.

Tamara refused to take her eyes off of it, she would stare at the TARDIS until it moved. She was wearing a sweater, she reconciled, and that was enough to fight off the cold at night, right? She set up her chair, all the while staring at the TARDIS and sat down, deciding she couldn't move from this spot. She would sit and wait all night and in to tomorrow morning if she had to. She wouldn't miss the Doctor again.

The Doctor took a different route than the way he came. He followed the path that Tamara had shown him only hours prior; well, technically it was years for her, but for him it was only hours. He walked down the rocky path between weeds, and when he came upon the woods he went to turn right, as she had tried to instruct him to do last time. And then he saw them, the little stones carving out a path and he smiled. Quite resourceful she was. He followed the path casually with hands in his pockets and nearly twenty minutes later he came round the bend and saw that rock with his TARDIS on the other side. He went around the opposite way of her footprint and casual walked in to the clearing to see her sitting in a little red camping chair. But as soon as she saw him she turned and stood up quickly, staring.

"Doctor" she said, as if she were exasperated.

He smiled at her, glad to see such enthusiasm. "You found her," he nodded towards the TARDIS, but in that glance away, he didn't see Tamara running forward and he was shocked for a moment as she hugged him tight. He laughed and hugged her back,

"What's that for?" he asked when she broke the hug.

"You came back! You, you came back! I never thought you would."

"Of course I came back, I always come back." He beamed at her, and she had barely changed besides a different outfit and haircut. "The real question is, how did you know?"

"Know what?"

"About the chameleon arch. How did a girl like you, from a small town, know about that?" He looked questioningly at her.

"Well, from the stories."

"Stories, what stories?" he asked quickly, his interest piqued.

"The stories they tell. They're published and taught in school, stories all about you and your adventures."

She got a dreamy look in her eyes, having thought about the stories of the Doctor for years and even more so after she had found him.

"They published stories about me?"

"Mmhmm, all about the Daleks and the Master, Ice Warriors and, ooh and I love the stories with the Graske."

"How did they know all of those?" He asked himself, scratching his head. "Well," he shrugged, "I guess its difficult to hide your past when its written all throughout history."

"I have the book with me in my bag if you want to see it,"

"Yes, yes I think I'd like that."

He would track down who published the book, perhaps go back and stop them from publishing it. But then he would change history, and Tamara may never had known about him, and thus never gone looking for him after she found the TARDIS, and thus he wouldn't have been restored. Perhaps it was for the best that everyone on this planet knew of him.

Tamara rifled in her messenger bag and pulled out a soft cover book, about 400 pages, and handed it to him. He held the book with the bent spine and curled corners of pages, and couldn't stop himself from laughing, looking at the photo of himself many regenerations ago. "Was that really the most decent photo they had of me? Blimey."

Tamara was glad she could help, smiling at him, eager to go with him, to explore all of time and space.

"Do you mind if I keep this?"

"No, not at all."

"Excellent. Well, off we go then?" He motioned her to follow with a nudge of his head.

Tamara beamed and followed hesitantly, "You mean it?"

"Yeah I mean it," he smiled gingerly at the girl who had nearly saved his life, who had figured out how to bring back the last of the Time Lord's. He didn't even have to use the key, for as he walked towards the TARDIS he snapped his finger and the door opened inwards. Tamara let off a small squeal of excitement and then took her first steps in to that large blue box that would whisk her away to the stars and beyond.

END

* * *

**Alternative ending: **

"How do you know?"

"I, well, I just... It's been broken a long time. I mean..." I could see it in his eyes. He thought it was broken because of the battery that hadn't been changed in so long. It must be, after all. Any normal fob watch would be.

"Why don't you open it?

"I just... I don't know."

"Oh go on then." I said encouragingly. He hesitated before slowly turning the dial on the top of the watch to the left, counter clockwise.

The watch opened to show that the battery was dead, having stopped at 9:22 on no particular day of mention. He looked down at the watch, and Tamara stared at it. It hadn't worked. Maybe it was somebody else in town? Or maybe the Doctor hadn't made it here, or maybe he had been killed? Tamara felt sore disappointment; the excitement that she had felt just a few seconds prior was now disappeared.

"Huh, guess it could use a new battery eh?" said Jacob casually.

"Yeah, I guess so," Tamara tried not to sound too disappointed. She took the watch and went off to do a half-hearted photo shoot with her friends.

The years passed and Tamara never told anybody of the blue box; she didn't know who to tell, or what she would do when she did tell them. She visited the spot every day while she lived in town, but once she moved off to college, she could only visit it during breaks. She graduated from university and moved back to the little town she grew up in, telling everyone that she loved the town so much she could never leave. But in reality, she wanted to stay near to the TARDIS even though she visited it less and less as the years went by. She married and had a child, went through a divorce and a second marriage. Her son grew up and moved back home to care for her after her second husband died. She fell very ill but didn't want to go in to the hospital in her old age even though they were state of the art and could have probably provided her several more years of comfortable living. Tamara passed away in her sleep, and when her son found her the next day, she had fallen asleep with the book of the Doctors adventures atop the sheets and resting on her stomach, with one hand over it. And there her son saw a little paper peeking out from the book; a ripped page? He knew his mother had always been fascinated by the stories about the Doctor, and felt touched for a moment that it was the last book she had wanted to read before she passed away. He sat next to her cold body as he took the book from under her hand; she looked peaceful, like she was just asleep and it had been her time to go. She kenw it, and so did he. Her son pulled the paper from the book and saw a map, and at the end of the map was a little drawing of a blue box. His eyes widened, and he ran to phone 9-11 and tell them of the secret his mother had nearly taken to her grave.


End file.
